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Edible borders

Gardening

11 May 2009 12:40

Growing your own food is hugely satisfying and these varieties will make attractive – and tasty – addition to any garden says Ceri Thomas, editor of Which? Gardening

Dwarf sunflower

This dwarf sunflower will add a strong splash of colour to your border. It produces masses of small but petal-packed flowers on branching stems that reach to around 60cm high. The buds are delicious cooked in butter sauce, and the seeds are a tasty nibble.

Runner bean

Perfect for tight spaces, ‘Hestia’ is a reliable dwarf runner bean, which grows just 45-60cm high. It produces masses of attractive red and white flowers, followed by heavy crops of long stringless pods. Support with a few twigs among the plants.

Strawberry

‘Aromel’ produces a modest but steady succession of sweet, succulent fruits from June through to autumn. Make sure you keep them well watered and protected from slugs and snails though.

Chilli pepper

Chillies need plenty of sun to ripen and should be kept well-watered to ensure a bountiful crop. Two distinct varieties to try are dwarf, red-fruited ‘Apache’, and ‘Aurora’. Their fruits change colour from purple to peachy-orange as they mature.

Radicchio

This relative of the chicory forms heads of glossy, deep green leaves that turn red as temperatures drop in late summer and autumn. They can be used as baby salad leaves or you can shred them to add colour to mixed salads. Sow seeds in late spring, so you can pick them in the summer.

Peanut Plant

Great fun and easy to grow, the peanut plant has lovely small yellow flowers. The peanut forms like a legume and then develops underground to form the nuts we know. Your annual harvest consists of simply pulling the plant from the ground once it has grown to 18 inches tall. It grows best in a pot in the conservatory or in a sheltered spot on the patio, but it could be worth giving it a go in the vegetable patch. Available in the Yours Shop! Click here

Patio Apple Trees

A provider of beautiful spring blossom, summer shade and sumptuous fruit followed by spectacular autumn colour – a truly multi purpose garden feature for your patio or by the back door! These trees are perfect for growing on as dwarf specimens in large diameter containers where they will thrive for years on end. Also avalaible at the Yours Shop! Click here

The Goji Berry

The Goji berry is a very sweet deep-red, dried fruit tasting something like a cross between a cranberry and a cherry. It is known as the “happy berry” because of the feeling it induces! Pronounced ‘go-gee', the berries are claimed to contain significant levels of vitamin C, beta-carotene and iron. It is said to help eyesight, the immune system, circulation and liver. You can also get your hands on one via the Yours Shop. Click here 

Blueberries

The healthy and delicious blueberry is fast becoming one of Britain's favourite fruits. Perfect for deep-freezing, the berries are ready from about mid-summer onwards. Blueberries are hardy plants but need to be kept well-watered , particularly if grown in pots on the patio where they make a lovely feature. Click here to order some from the Yours Shop

Jobs for the fortnight

• If you have a spare five minutes: feed spring bulbs with a general liquid feed to help them make next year's flowers.
• If you have a spare half hour: trim your topiary if new growth means it’s looking a bit shaggy.
• If you have a spare hour: earth up potatoes to help protect them from frost and to stop any tubers near the surface turning green, cover the exposed stems with soil when they are about 20cm high – leaving the top quarter of the stems uncovered.
• If you have a spare couple of hours: sow hardy annuals, such as pot marigolds, outdoors in the place where you'd like them to flower. Weed thoroughly before sowing to reduce competition.

Which? Gardening provides independent, expert gardening advice that you can trust. To get a free copy of Which? Gardening's Grow Your Own Veg guide, call 0800 533 088 and quote VEG12F. For more information visit www.which.co.uk/gardening

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